Yet Another SpaceX Crash

[YoshiJimbo]

Oh no!

 

[Brazilnut]

Thanks, Henry. Looks like the results of growing pains in this industry are as spectacular as ever....They'll either get it right or go broke.

 

[HenryHill]

Thanks, Henry. Looks like the results of growing pains in this industry are as spectacular as ever....They'll either get it right or go broke.

The unmanned part allows me to feel the crashes as visually interesting with out have to dread the risk of life.

When I was a youngster, guys had skin in the game of test pilot or rocketman.

 

[LPSGME]

Geez! Just make the forces go in the same direction, already. It's not like it's rocket science.

 

[Stinky Kitty]

It should work, I've seen Coyote do it dozens of times!

 

[straightblues]

This stuff ain't easy. We live in a world today that we expect to be able to do anything. But the world never has and never will work that way. There are a lot of failures on the path to success.

 

[spitfire]

Keep in mind that even Space X gave this a 50-50 chance of working. Also that this is the 1st stage booster they are trying to land it, rather than just letting it drop into the ocean (which is what they have been doing).

So even when they start using these for manned flights, people will not be on these stages when they try to land it.

The goal is to be able to reuse these booster stages, saving millions per launch.

They have already succeeded in landing these before. In that case it was a test launch, not a full blown orbital shot and the landing was on land. But they have already shown they can land these. This was just the first time trying to do it as part of an actual launch and landing on a floating platform.

And while this booster stage was destroyed, it would have been lost in the ocean anyway. So other than the damage to the barge (which is unmanned during the attempted landing), this was no loss. Also the actual launch was a success and the payload capsule made it to orbit.

And yes, this stuff is really, really hard. While I'm not involved in this industry, as an engineer I appreciate how really complicated this is. I'm always amazed any of this works. There's just so many things that can go wrong.

These Space X guys really do seem to know what they're doing and I won't be surprised if they do get this working on a regular basis.

 

[SJJMcGhee]

In fairness, this stuff is mental difficult. We do some Space modules in our Aero degree, and can choose to specialise in spacecraft and their systems in our 4th/5th year. It's really something else. But they'll probably get it made. Or, as mentioned above, go bust.

When you think that in the 40's we could barely go 50 feet up without a massive fireball resulting it's really impressive progress, even if it fails first time.

We had a guest lecture from a guy at Airbus Defence and Space who'd worked on Rosetta, and some of the design constraints and challenges faced were incredible! There can be temperature differences of hundreds of degrees on different sides of the craft depending on whether they're facing that big old star or not, the fact we can overcome this stuff really is a triumph of human engineering.

 

[Ermghoti]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJdrlWR-yFM[/ame]

 

[HenryHill]

They've already proven they can do it, to me.

The only reason it wasn't successful on the first attempt was an oversight of the mechanical engineering in that enough hydraulic oil capacity wasn't available at the last moment of landing.

But not since the late 50's have we been able to oooh and ahhhh at the spectacular crashes of space rockets without the loss of astronaut life involved.

If they can fly the drone space station resupply ships and have then dock autonomously, they can rendezvous with a barge with a spent booster.

But the space plane crash was not cool.

 

[jep1210]

Horses**t!

It was clearly the Johnson Rod.

I heard it was the Phinnegan pin, It didn't engage the armature sprocket properly.

 

[Ermghoti]

It was the Cravenlator.

 

[Digger]

They've already proven they can do it, to me.

The only reason it wasn't successful on the first attempt was an oversight of the mechanical engineering in that enough hydraulic oil capacity wasn't available at the last moment of landing.

But not since the late 50's have we been able to oooh and ahhhh at the spectacular crashes of space rockets without the loss of astronaut life involved.

If they can fly the drone space station resupply ships and have then dock autonomously, they can rendezvous with a barge with a spent booster.

But the space plane crash was not cool.

Very true and I don't think I'd be signing up for the first few flights with Virgin Galactic just yet!